November 12, 2015

A crepe cake for my husband's birthday.Yay, finally made one. It was an impromptu attempt. I had no idea of what to bake for him this year. Made him a croquembouche tower last year, and had to find something to beat that, yikes. I finally settled with a crepe cake minutes before midnight, hoping the whole crepe-making process would bring me the same challenge. I know, to some, this is not a cake. Having those layers made it half into being a cake. But who cares. As long as I can stick a candle on it, a cake it is then. Well, I happened to sample a nice crepe cake in Japan. In Shin-Yokohama, to be exact. Somewhere near the Ramen Museum. Perfect weather; a slice of chocolate crepe cake partnered with a heart-shaped latte, and a well-behaved boy next to me, enjoying his hot chocolate.*wink* I gave chocolate some break this time, and pursued this cake with Southeast Asian twist-Thai Milk Tea. Stood up 30 minutes for that thin crepes. Love the quite joy I had while preparing those layers; drop a ladle of batter, quickly swirl the pan, let it dry, flip, remove and repeat. Without that particular kid's screaming, it was heaven and yeah, I'd probably do it again. As for the pastry cream, I'm not quite happy on how it turned out; it was me, not the recipe. Some of the ingredients were poorly substituted, resulting a bit lumpy texture, rather runny than my usual cream. But it escaped the bin and made it as a cake. The topping was crème de la crème! I can't even... It was so tasty I couldn't keep my finger off of it. Assembling the cake was easy. Made a time-lapse video of it. Watch it below.

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients and pulse for 10 seconds. Place the crepe batter in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (This allows the bubbles to subside so the crepes will be less likely to tear during cooking.) The batter will keep for up to 48 hours.

Heat a small non-stick pan. Add butter to coat. Pour 2-3 tbs of batter into the center of the pan and swirl to spread evenly. Cook for 30 seconds and flip. Cook for another 10 seconds and remove to the cutting board. Lay them out flat so they can cool, you can stack the crepes, they will not stick to each other.

Continue until all batter is gone. After they have cooled you can store the crepes in sealable plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or in the freezer for up to two months.

Transfer the remaining Thai milk tea to heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and the seed and the pod to the pan and add the salt. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over, letting sugar sink undisturbed to bottom. Set pan over moderate heat and bring to simmer without stirring.

Whisk hot milk mixture, then gradually whisk into egg yolk mixture (this is called tempering). You want to do this slowly or you will have scrambled eggs.

Return to saucepan over moderate heat and cook, whisking constantly, until pastry cream simmers and thickens, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, discard vanilla pod, and whisk cream until smooth. Transfer to bowl and press plastic wrap or parchment directly onto surface. Chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Pastry cream can be made ahead and refrigerated, wrapped well with plastic wrap or parchment on surface, up to 3 days.)

For the Thai milk tea drizzle sauce:
Follow the steps as above for the pastry cream, except cook for a little longer to make it thicker. Be sure to keep whisking to ensure you don’t end up with lumpy bits down the bottom. I found whisking then transferring to a large mixing bowl, then back into the saucepan a few times to be really helpful.

Assemble the cake:
Soak gelatine leave in cold water for about 15 minutes.

Use the base of an 18cm cake tin as a template to trim the crepes to size. Then line the base and sides of the tin, ready for assembly.

Place one crepe in the cake tin. Spread one tablespoon of pastry cream evenly over the crepe. Lay your next crepe on the bench or a plate and spread evenly with one tablespoon of whipped cream.

Carefully pick it up and lay it over the crepe in the cake tin, cream side down. Continue with pastry cream and whipped cream until the final crepe has been added. Or until around 13 layers high.

Squeeze excess water from the gelatine leaves, add to the remaining pastry cream and gently heat and stir over a stove until gelatine is dissolved. Pour this on top of the crepe cake and smooth the top.

Chill the cake for 2 hours or overnight to firm up.

The recipe is copied from Iron Chef Shellie's blog. Her Thai Milk Tea Crepe cake is seriously impressive. Click the link for more exciting recipes from her blog. :)